Cute N Cool

Thursday, April 30, 2009

I really have so much to be thankful for...not just my family.. which is reason enough.. but I have horses to ride. You all know, not everyone gets to have a horse..or access to a horse to ride.

My younger sister Jill ( who is on Zoe, the palomino) had a life goal.. which was to ride a horse again.You see ..she had been seriously overweight and was not able to ride for more years than she can remember.. and now she is at a healthy weight.. and was chomping at the bit( sorry , I couldn't resist!) to ride. So Zoe was happy to volunteer her services.. andride she did, and I did too!

At first she thought she wanted to ride Betsy, until I pointed out what a twerp my Betsy can be. So Jill seemed more than happy to ride our more pleasant little cutting bred mare, Zoe.

I have not ridden in over a year...and I gotta admit I enjoyed it, I think I may even ride tomorrow!

Jill is a school teacher in Las Vegas, and is up visiting on her school break..

So, now Jill can check that goal off her list, though I don't think she is done riding!

"Thankful Thursday " is sponsored by The Blessed Country Mom, go on over, sign up... and share with the rest of us!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

I was recently awarded this Lovely Blog award by my special friend Ali, over at "The Blessed Country Mom", ah shucks..thank you so much! Please make sure you all go stop by her blog, it is awesome, like she is!

Here is how this works:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.2) Pass the award to up to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Here, are my 15 newly discovered blogs in no particular order ( you will notice that my new friends blogs are also often "dog and pony" shows as well!):

PS... ALL of the blogs I follow are cool, or I wouldn't follow you all! And I have my fav's who have been my fav's since day 1... you all know who you are, as I visit you regularly! So because of that you are not "newly" discovered, more like old friends!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

When you run out of things to talk about.. or the brain just freezes up, where do you go for inspiration?

Color is always an inspiration to me.. so I went to the cupboard!

OK, I know this may be a bit desperate..but hey, I can do desperate, and the truth is I really do love Fiestaware as well!

Both my girls have and collect Fiestaware. I started using it about 4 years ago, and I have got to tell you, this stuff is unbelievable if you want dishware that is almost non destructible ( I should have chipped mine a hundred times being clumsy loading and unloading the dishwasher.....no chips!)

Of course you all know I love Mexico, partly because of the bright colors you see so much of in Mexico.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Guess what? Ann and us Girls, are all going to Rock Out tonight! Yes at Virtual Girls Night Out!

Go on over and sign up for the fun!!

We are going to have a Concert.. get out your lighters.. no, we are not smoking!

Tonight I am partying with the one and only... Martina McBride.. like, of course!

Jam had quite the list of celebrities to party along with ... Pink, Beyonce, Gwen Stefani, Miley, Diana Krall, Fergie, and Kate Perry..

Oh, that Ann, she is such a party girl! She has also given us a little "Party Game" challenge ..

After a long week working as an assistant trainer at the Jane Fonda Exercise Studio I was ready for a night out. I went to my closet, put on my ________ and headed out the door. I stopped to pick-up my friend ________ and we headed to Studio 54. This place was packed! I had just about sweated my ________ off when they turned on the lights and told us it was time to boogie home. Another great night. Can you dig it? :->

*Fill in the blanks by following the charts. If the First Letter of your FIRST name begins with an 'A' then fill in with "Polyester Suit", etc.

Monday, April 20, 2009

It wasn't long before we saw what an exceptional horse woman she was, and a hard worker with strong work ethics.Wendy ended up helping us out quite a bit ( as the other half and I both worked full time). As she got older Wendy would clean stalls with enthusiasm, and even helped start and work some of our horses.

She and her family were very involved in 4-H, Wendy went on to get "1st in State" 4-H titles, 4 years in a row on her wonderful horse CeCe, who they call their "Garage Sale" horse.. she has had him since they were both 6, and she trained him as she got older.

She is now married, and a high school teacher, and her students are so lucky to have her as a wonderful role model. She can't help but have a positive influence on them! Yes, she still has CeCe, and Wendy will ride him for pleasure periodically....

We belong to Netflix.. it was our way of doing the "low cost" entertainment thing, due to this economic mess we are all in. The funny thing is we really rarely go out to dinner, nor go to the movies...so maybe this is a positive side of the negative!

Well of course I have read all of the "Twilight" books in the series...oh you say they are written for teenagers, which I am not? Yeah, who cares!

So back to Netflix..so about 2 weeks ago I order 3 movies from Netflix: "Slumdog Millionaire" (WOW, great movie), "I am Legend"( scary, but really good) and "Twilight".

As you can imagine, the other half was not looking forward to watching Twilight, but finally agreed to be a good sport and watch it last night.

So, he puts the movie on.. and it starts off with Paul Newman standing at a bar? I didn't know he was in the movie..wow, are they in Mexico? Don't remember that in the book...hmm? Huh, Reese Witherspoon? What, notop on and much younger than she looks today?

Gene Hackman, Susan Surandan.. ah..you got it, wrong movie "Twilight"! Better half says "glad you ordered Twilight"! He is a big Paul Newman fan..( me too, I don't care how old he is in the movies, he always looked good!).

Monday, April 13, 2009

My memory is how wonderful Buddy looked in July 2008, 10 months after he came to live with us.

I remember how forlorn he looked when he came out of the trailer in September of 2007. When we went to take him in the barn he balked...he had not been in a barn in such a long time, he was afraid to go in.

He went through a very bad founder period about a month after we got him. Because he was finally on medication for the Cushings, he actually shed out nicely ( I believe the first summer in years) Cushings is like a horse diabetes, and one symptom is they don't shed properly. He had that long curly Cushings hair trait when he came in September of 2007.

Look at him, he was probably a beautiful boy in his early days.. and I imagine he had some little girls who thought he was something!

He is actually a beautiful liver chestnut color with a flaxen mane when he sheds out. Certainly different from the woolly mammoth he is in the winter!

Yep, when his story ends, we hope it is on a good note, he must be about 37 now...

Saturday, April 11, 2009

So here I was sitting in the home office last Monday (due to the summer like weather, I played hooky from work).

So.. I look out the window, glancing at the bird feeder.. only to see this "rat" like character in the feeder,stuffing his little rat like face.

And my first thought was, great..I am feeding the neighborhood rats!

So I grabbed my trusty little Olympus (someday I will have a really good camera!) and went out to see for myself... and was relieved to see it was only a greedy squirrel!(click on picture for a better look at my rat like furry friend!)

The birds were not happy as he (yes I could tell it was a "HE" as he ran up the tree later) was having a real feast...my poor other half keeps filling the feeders grumbling something about how he just can't believe they empty them out so fast...should I tell him?

Friday, April 10, 2009

Yeah!!! Ann from 'Ann Again and Again' is sponsoring our weekly Virtual Girls Night Out as she does so graciously! - Come join the fun with all of us!

Favorite Easter Candy... Chocolate..!

I am delighted to share another Friday Night with all of you.. this blog hopping is so much fun! I was at Costco, and picked up some wonderful virtual goodies..I am sorry.. I really am not much of a cook anymore...that's why we love our Costco.

Oh what do I have? Well..."virtually" whatever you want!!!Thanks for popping in...

Oh, I have a favor to ask..if you have a moment, please stop by and see Tamis at"A day in the life."... as she said she has "Blogger's Block". Yep, she called me, frantic as she was taking the kid's to swimming...."Blogger's Block", that's what she said...I believe the exact words were.... "I'VE GOT NOTHING!!!" So if I could ask a favor, just pop in and encourage her, OK? She doesn't' know I am asking you to visit...!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

I have concluded that this "blog" stuff is like everything else I have to deal with...it is having "stuff" and not enough space to put that stuff.

Is it my imagination.. or have I noticed many of you are in the same predicament, tell me..am I imagining it? I wonder if those of you who keep such tidy and neat and organized blogs, also have your houses neat and tidy and organized also? And of those of us who clutter our blogs..( I am including myself in this group)... well does this parallel any other part of our lives???

All right Jan, focus back on topic, where were you going with this? Oh yeah, I remember...

Some of you folks that I stalk, I mean that I follow... well, I feel a real loyalty to you. For whatever reason I relate to you...your thoughts, your stories, your topics.. or you just amuse me! Or maybe you just have the cutest little button that I just have to have! So of course..." You have a button for me..? Why thank you..yes, I would like that, how cute!" It is probably a good thing you don't all have buttons.. I would need a 4th column!

Then the next dilemma.. OK..well, let me think.. that would look very cute over here? No maybe here...under that button? Hmmm'. All these button's and other special things, add on's, lists, and information. After all, there is so much to share.. and I (sigh)... only had two columns to put it on.

Well back to my story, as you may have noticed, I get distracted easily...

So, because of this collection of blog "stuff", I realized I needed another column to hold my stuff. So I went to the source, yes for me it was "The Cutest Blog on the Block"

So, did you notice???? I now have 3 columns...Yeah! But I had one small problem, my "Spurs" template was not made for 3 columns. Being new to this blogging stuff, I didn't know that the template needed to have room for 3 columns...dah?

So now what, well... I was hanging over the edges...really, over the edges.. into the land of spurs..it was not a pretty sight. Since I am still partial to my template "Spurs", and not quite ready to move on to another template ...because this one just kind of reminds me of...well... me!

Well, with a little emailing back and forth, and some quick swishes of the magical template creator wand over at "The Cutest Blog on the Block".. they came through for me. I can have my "Spurs", and my 3 columns!!

I am so happy.. I may grow tired of the template later... as I can be a little fickle. But for now I have some room, and I am staying in my proper space without overhang!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

My daughter and the kids came to my garden while I was at work two years ago, and planted Lily's... to surprise me when they grew and bloomed, how cool was that!

This tree is a Mimosa Tree... we call it the Dr Seuss tree because of the flowers.. the tree will be covered with this funny pink flowers, aren't they fun!

We had some landscape work done a while back, and I told Daniel the landscape guy, I wanted this arched metal bench incorporated into my garden. I love how it turned out, and now the Climbing Hydrangea goes up one side, and the sweet smelling Honeysuckle cover 3/4 of it. Walking under this when the fragrant Honeysuckle is in bloom.. amazing!!

I just have to take a minute to encourage any of you who have not been over to Audrey's at Stage 3 Who ME? to trot on over today..I love the post she did on her an analogy of Knitting and Blogging...who would guess these two could have parallel's? I could not do her justice by explaining it.. just go see for your self, and don't forget to leave her comments!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Boy, I have not had time to think about this...you know as I mentioned in my "sideline", I am no longer a spring chicken! You see, the upside is I have gob's of memories! Here goes on one of them...

My love for horses, and one in particular...

We moved a lot when I was a kid. I was born in St Paul Minnesota , and moved to Iowa and also Michigan, before our family landed in Washington where the family settled and refused to leave, at least most of them.

One memory comes to mind. I was the little girl that was horse crazy, I am sure you have all met one of us at some time. Forget everything else... I wanted a horse of my own. I would find a horse, just to look over the fence at it.

The problem was we were not "country" living people, we were "burb" people. Finding a horse to look at was not an easy thing for a grade school age kid to do. Also my parents were not at all interested in living somewhere that would have enough room for a horse, and if they did live in such a place..a horse? Why would we want a horse??

I remember we lived in Grand Rapids Michigan at this time. I was probably around 8. Somehow I found out that there was a pony (I think he was black and white) quite a distance away from our little housing development. I probably noticed him as we drove to the grocery store, as I remember the store was up the rode from the pony. I also remember the road was a busy road as well.

Because I was 1 of 4 kids, my mother was not always aware of where one of us disappeared to. And at that time parents didn't worry about the stuff that we worry about now.

Well I would walk all the way to see that pony. I found out his name was "Risk" which I thought was the most bazaar name for a pony, who would name a pony Risk?

So why did I mention this? Well because when I was 12 and now living in Washington, I got my first horse (that is another horsey story for later).. since then, I have had more than 30 horses and ponies over the years. One of my favorite horses was a Quarter Horse gelding I got when he was 3 and I was about 16. He was the most beautiful horse I had ever seen. He was very well bred, a grandson of Leo on his dam's side, and a grandson of Sugar Bars on his sires side... his registered name... Risk Bar!

Risk was part of my life for many years, and I have so many great memories of him. I even took him to Ellensburg when I went to college, and found a farm to board him at (try storing a saddle in a girls dorm!).

It wasn't until I was married with a new baby and a husband in Viet Nam, that I could not afford to keep him any longer.. I still regret that I could not keep him his whole life, I felt like I let him down. I believe I was supposed to be his forever home, he was family to me. I am sure he is long gone, but he lives in my memories vividly, so vividly.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Today.. I am kind of staying on thetheme Ann used from VGNO on Friday night..Positive Reinforcement!

I am going to use an author who was known for this theme...and this Sunday have decided on:

Norman Vincent Peale, US clergyman, who wrote "The Power of Positive Thinking" 1952

Change your thoughts and you change your world.Do not be awe struck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as you can.

Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.

There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.

Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.

Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture...Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.

(By the way my Blogger friends.. I am probably preaching to the choir, as you obviously have applied much of this. I say this because you have extremely creative, successful and unique Blogs!)

Oh.. OK, here is the rest of this...Post a new post on your blog with some of your favorite quotes.~ Go over to "A Daily Dose of Toni" and post your link in the mister linkey.

~ Go check out all the other cool bloggers that are joining in Quotable Sunday, check back all day as people are posting throughout the day. Have a great Sunday!

Friday, April 3, 2009

OK...this is week three for me! You girls (and a guy or two) are so much fun to visit and party with!

Have I told you all that your Blogs are so much fun to read? The other half is starting to worry as I disappear into the office, for hours at a time. He will hear a chuckle... and than the keys clicking away.I am amazed at the writing talent out in the land of Blog, who'd of guessed I was missing out on this for so long!

My daughter over at A day in the lifegot me started on this unexpected journey with you all... please go visit her, she is a hoot!

I read about how you handle the silly and crazy daily stuff, the tough stuff, and the truly hard stuff. The kids and their craziness, the spouse (and his peculiar strangely odd collection..Evil Twins Wife!) And of course the animals, the horses, the dogs, the cats...I even saw a picture of a little mouse under a truck tire on a blog the other day... so yes of course, the pictures!

And than we have the frugal savings!! OK so I follow 'Frugal Chick Living', so I can get these unbelievable deals... you know"Safeway has Bertolli Premium Sauce on sale $2.00 off, get the 'blinkie' coupon for $1.00 off x 10 coupons. Then buy ten, get $5.00 off, and bingo...I just bought 10 packages of Bertolli Premium Sauce that was $3.49 a package for $0.50 a package"...how could I not get excited!

And of course there are lots of personal view points on a number of usual and unusual topics as well. I am finding I really like all you people!

Oh, food recipes too! You all are good at that!

My gosh, all the creative things you write about... it is an honor to be allowed into your lives, hearts, thoughts(some are kind of strange!) and homes...

What can I say to you? Well for one, thanks for coming by and visiting me. You give me a reason to make my brain work a little bit!

And thanks for letting my stop by and visit you... I toast you dear Bloggers, Happy Virtual Girls Night Out!!

And of course..Ann from 'Ann Again and Again' is sponsoring this weekly Virtual Girls Night Out - Come join the fun with all of us!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

We.. meaning the other half and I... love Mexico. We would go often, if we could. I so love the colors in Mexico. What a wonderful place to take pictures of the old missions and churches which I think are so beautiful. The colorful buildings, the vendors and all the wares..the small towns... there is a picture everywhere you turn.

You know how there is this 'Tuscan' trend for interior decorating... if you ask me there are some similarities with the colors and textures from Mexico... but back to topic.

I love the people, and I really love the sun! I even love the music! I love hearing Spanish... and wish I spoke it.

It just makes me sad to think people are feeling unsafe about going to Mexico with all that scary stuff going on down there. The daily news isn't bringing comfort to some poor soul who just wants to trot on down south of the border.

My sister's very 'free spirit' daughter moved to Mexico City to teach. She has backpacked all over South America and Europe, much of it on her own, and is obviously fearless. She and her friend decided they wanted to teach internationally.. after all work and travel all at the same time, whats not to like about that?

Anyway, back to Erin, I think she teaches first grade ... she said the kids have their own personal body guards that take them to school...can you imagine getting little Sally ready for school, and you aren't worried about missing the school bus, you are worried about "where the heck is that body guard?"

My niece, was invited to one of her students Birthday Party, and the children who came, of course... also had their bodyguards... at the 1st grade Birthday party....hmm

I was told they have "Express Kidnapping" Because the banks limit how much you can take out of the cash machine per day from your debit/credit card. They hold you, for say 3 days, get $300.00 total, and let you go!

I heard on the news a few weeks ago that Mexico City has the highest kidnap rate in the world.. do you know what city was second?This really shocked me, Phoenix...

You know all of this seems so hard to imagine, from my small corner of this big world. But I guess it is so...

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Buddy was another "find" from Craigslist, The ad showed a very thin sad looking old pony, and stated he was looking for his "forever" home....

It is pretty sad that this pony gave all these years of his life to different families, and he got kicked to the curb, and at age 35 (so my vet thinks) ....has to finally find his "forever" home.

The people we got him from, said they "rescued" him. They presented this story about how they had actually looked at him the previous winter when he was listed on Craigslist (and supposedly was much thinner than when we got him from these "rescuers"..).but they found him again 6-8 months later, after 2 different other owners...what???

Well, I guess I am as big a sucker as any other person who comes across some poor forlorn animal. My daughter and her Family were going to have Buddy as their first "livestock" as my son- in-law said. They were excited, the kids were excited, we even celebrated Buddy's arrival home!

I had fields of grass, and we slowly got him out on them, and Buddy was truly in pony heaven...it was an absolute delight to see him run in my fields. Than he foundered. If you are not a horse person, just so you know..this is not good! For you folks that are horse folks, you know how bad that is! My vet said, oh... he has probably been foundered before.

OK, so maybe others would have seen the handwriting on the wall at that point, and let him go.. but I just wasn't ready to do that.

About $1000.00 in vet bills later, he was feeling a bit better. We also had him tested for Cushings Disease,(which is like diabetes for horses), and common in older ponies. Yes, add this to the list too! The medicine for this runs about $300 a year.

So we have old Buddy, the antique pony. He cannot go out on the grassy fields, and has to be in his (fairly large) grass free paddock, being fed Senior Feed (he barely has teeth!) and cannot have hay with alfalfa, so he gets the pricey orchard grass hay. One good thing has recently happened. I got a new horseshoer who donates his trimming of Buddy's feet. God bless that man!!

We honestly don't know how much longer he will be with us, but I am pretty certain... he has found his "forever" home.

Ps.. I have never had a horse get a winter coat as thick as this old boy gets.. he is like the "woolly mammoth"!

Fast forward from 2008 to now...

When I started blogging, I was more" general "on my blog topics, and loved blogging.

Later I took a long time off, as my mom's health was deteriorating, and she was my main focus.

In June of 2012 my job of 21 years ended, leading me into a bit earlier retirement then I had planned, which has opened up old doors, to do what I love doing.

I started a new blog "The Pink Geranium" for my love of repurposing, and all things vintage.

In the meantime Jan's Place is here for everything else, my love of photography, my ability to ramble on about nothing in particular...life on our little farm with the critters and family, and to continue to meet and visit new friends and old.

I love your comments, it is how I know you came by and if you follow..well I just plain blush!

Please join my new blog The Pink Geranium, See Above !!

Blog Network

About Me

A Midwest girl transplanted to the Pacific NW many years ago.
Recently laid off after 21 years in the Communication Industry, so new decorate budget is called thrift!
Married to a great "old" guy, he is a year older then me! We have terrific children (mine and his), 7 wonderful grandchildren, & critters such as dogs, and horses, and a crazy cat named Eleanor.
Now I am going back to a long time love, which is old stuff..and adding it to my world of Blog!
I have 2 blogs, my first being Jan's Place where I ramble about nothing in particular, it is really my Blog home base.
The other one is The Pink Geranium, named after my mom's old consignment store, and dedicated to all things vintage.